Peer production for collaboration between academics and practitioners

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to suggest commons-based peer production as a form of work that can help bridge the gap between research and practice in LIS. The research design is based on two in-depth and longitudinal qualitative case studies of collaborative projects involving LIS academics and practitioners in Italy. Analysis of interviews and texts was conducted to study the interplay between sociotechnical aspects of work organization and the activities of the actors. The results suggest similarities between the collaborative projects analysed and peer-production activities. This study relies on two cases which cannot be considered either typical or representative of collaboration between LIS academics and practitioners in Italy. The paper offers the opportunity to stimulate a discussion on collaboration between researchers and practitioners in LIS, and on the potential applicability of peer production to support new forms of collaboration in small-scale, distributed, and unfunded or underfunded projects.